Drama assigenment Zoo Story

Rosyid Arifin

A320080157

Drama Assignment

 

1. The intention meaning from the author of the title “The Zoo Story”:

            The Zoo Story by Edward Albee details what happens when one character enters the life of another character and quickly changes it forever. In the play, Jerry confronts Peter while he sits quietly reading on a bench in Central Park; through a quick series of events, Jerry forces Peter into helping him kill himself. Layered throughout this short one-act play are three overriding themes: absurdity versus reality, alienation and loneliness, and wealth and poverty. The Zoo Story has been considered as being a play of the theatre of absurd or nothing happened. The absurd lies also in the title because “The Zoo Story” is a story which is not told; the title refers to the theme of the play. From my point of view Albee is still concerned that a way out exists. In his plays he pursues the aim to change the society. This aim is embodied in Jerry and due to that fact the play could not only be considered as being absurd but also naturalistic. So Albee namely title of his work was for potrayed the naturalistic which is related with the society.

2. The Character of The Zoo Story:

Jerry is an aggressive, seedy, erratic loner, friendly. It can know by this story which is Jerry is a first person who is looking for conversation partner and Peter a man in his forties who sits on a bench and enjoys his idle period while reading a book. Jerry announces that he has been to the (Central Park) Zoo and eventually gets Peter, who clearly would rather be left alone, to put down his book and actually enter into a conversation.

            Peter is a calm, polite and also ashamed person. It can found in when Jerry starts to ask Peter questions and although it is obvious that Peter is not interested in communicating with a man like Jerry, Peter answers because of his politeness. And when Jerry also talks about taboo themes that were not normally, he tells Peter about his homosexual experience he had when he was 15. Peter is ashamed because in his environment they usually do not speak about homosexuality.

3. The message of The Zoo Story:

From that story,  we can take some moral value which is what he wants to say is that whatever we do has an impact on others, on our society and on ourselves. It is very important to become aware of this fact. Problem awareness is always the first step towards a solution. If we want to maintain social peace we will have to overcome the isolation and also the class divide. Communication provides information and is essential to enable us to understand each other. Being well-informed is the enemy of prejudice and thus can avoid discrimination and non-acceptance and create tolerance. We must learn to accept different lifestyles and hopefully we are also able to show solidarity with the weaker members of our society. The Zoo Story was able to present the essentials of the play and have succeeded in answering the question whether “The Zoo Story” could be seen as a cross-section of today’s society. From the fact on playwrights make an important contribution to help make the world a better place to live in as they make us aware of our problems.

4. Theme of The Zoo Story:

Albee details what happens when one character enters the life of another character and quickly changes it forever which is related with human and society. "The Zoo Story” is a confrontation between middle-class America and the outcasts of society. On this playwright throughout this short one-act play are three overriding themes absurdity versus reality, alienation and loneliness, and wealth and poverty that was covered with classical style on his literary works and was portrayed in each conflict.